New Delhi: The government appears to have put on hold the "institution of eminence" status proposed for the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences, Pilani, purportedly because the institute has a pending court case against the University Grants Commission.

On Tuesday, the human resource development ministry initiated the process to grant the tag to the remaining five institutions chosen.

Earlier this month, the commission - the higher education regulator - had proposed the status for six institutions on the recommendation of an empowered expert committee, set up to sift through 114 applications.

Those chosen were three public institutions - the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, and the IITs in Delhi and Mumbai - and three private ones: BITS Pilani, the Manipal Academy of Higher Education and the yet-unborn Jio Institute, to be set up by the Reliance Foundation.

Eminence status can be bestowed on yet-to-be-established institutions on the basis of their vision plan, the rules say.

The ministry has asked the three public institutions to submit their draft memoranda of understanding, giving details of how they plan to achieve excellence. Once an institution's memorandum is signed, its eminence status will be notified, two commission officials and a ministry official said.

The ministry also issued letters of intent to the Manipal Academy and the Jio Institute. While Manipal has been asked to send a draft memorandum, Jio must wait for three years to sign the document while its progress is assessed.

In its report, the expert committee had said the ministry and the regulator would have to decide whether to grant the eminence status to institutions accused of violating the commission's rules.

BITS Pilani is among 10 institutions that the regulator had asked in November 2015 to close the off-campus centres they had opened without ministry approval. BITS Pilani, which had opened such centres in Hyderabad and Goa, lodged a case against the commission with Delhi High Court.

Commission sources said another expert committee set up by the regulator had recently suggested that BITS Pilani's off-campus centres be regularised provided the institute withdraws the case and applies afresh.

But the ministry found it embarrassing to approach BITS Pilani and has put the eminence status on hold. It's waiting for the institute to make the first move, the sources added.

Human resource development minister Prakash Javadeker described BITS Pilani as an "established institute" last Friday.

"BITS Pilani, which is an established institute and has been in existence for years, and Manipal university have been working for years," Javadekar told the Rajya Sabha while replying to a question.